Fort Lauderdale, FL Public Conduct: Skateboarding Rules (2026)

Section 26-182 does not ban skateboarding citywide; it authorizes the city commission to designate specific sidewalks or city-owned properties, by resolution, where bicycles, skateboards, rollerskates, or in-line skates are prohibited, and it only becomes enforceable once those areas are actually posted with signs. Riding in a posted area is what triggers a violation, not skateboarding generally, which means a skater has to check for posted signage on a given sidewalk or public property rather than assume any prohibition applies. Where riding is not prohibited, subsection (b) still imposes two duties on anyone skateboarding, biking, rollerskating, or in-line skating on a sidewalk: yield the right-of-way to any pedestrian, and give an audible signal before overtaking and passing them.

This sits within Article V of Chapter 26, the same article that regulates bicycle registration, and the two rules share an enforcement structure; the police department administers both the posted-area riding prohibition and the separate bicycle-specific rules in sections 26-183 through 26-192, including an administrative hearing process under section 26-192 for anyone who wants to contest a citation. Because the prohibition is resolution-and-signage dependent rather than a blanket citywide rule, its actual reach varies block by block, with the city commission able to add or remove posted no-riding zones over time without amending the underlying ordinance text itself.